Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Pleural Disorders
Your pleura is a large, thin sheet of tissue that wraps around the outside of your lungs and lines the inside of your chest cavity. Between the layers of the pleura is a very thin space. Normally it's filled with a small amount of fluid. The fluid helps the two layers of the pleura glide smoothly past each other as your lungs breathe air in and out.
Disorders of the pleura include:
- Pleurisy - inflammation of the pleura that causes sharp pain with breathing
- Pleural effusion - excess fluid in the pleural space
- Pneumothorax - buildup of air or gas in the pleural space
- Hemothorax - buildup of blood in the pleural space
Many different conditions can cause pleural problems. Viral infection is the most common cause of pleurisy. The most common cause of pleural effusion is congestive heart failure. Lung diseases, like COPD, tuberculosis, and acute lung injury, cause pneumothorax. Injury to the chest is the most common cause of hemothorax. Treatment focuses on removing fluid, air, or blood from the pleural space, relieving symptoms, and treating the underlying condition.
It sits within Lungs and Breathing.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Pleural Disorders
998 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- TLN-499 in Combination With Venetoclax in Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Solid TumorsTreeline Biosciences, Inc.
- MEDI5752 in Combination With Carboplatin Plus Pemetrexed in Unresectable Pleural MesotheliomaAstraZeneca
- Randomized, Double-blind Study Comparing Tremelimumab to Placebo in Subjects With Unresectable Malignant MesotheliomaMedImmune LLC
- Mesothelin-targeted CAR T-cell Therapy in Patients With MesotheliomaMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Safety and Feasibility of Medical Thoracoscopy Using Single-use Flexible Bronchoscope Versus SemiRigid Pleuroscope in Pleural EffusionNational University of Malaysia
- APG-2449 in Patients With Advanced Solid TumorsAscentage Pharma Group Inc.
Research already completed
- Intraoperative Continuous Terlipressin Infusion is Associated With Reduced Severe Postoperative Complications After Laparoscopic Hepatectomy: a Prospective Propensity Score-matched Cohort StudyFirst Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University
- Study of RSO-021 in Patients With Malignant Pleural Effusion Due to Advanced/Metastatic Solid Tumors Including MesotheliomaRS Oncology LLC
- Chemical vs Mechanical Pleural Adhesiolysis for Liberation of Captive Pleura in Stacked EffusionDelta University for Science and Technology
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- What Are Pleural Disorders?National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Diagnosis and Tests
- Pleural Fluid AnalysisNational Library of Medicine
- Tests for Lung DiseaseNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Treatments and Therapies
- Chest tube insertion - seriesMedical Encyclopedia
Prevention and Risk Factors
- Causes and Risk FactorsNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Genetics
- Primary spontaneous pneumothorax: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Pleural DiseasesNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Pleural EffusionNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: PleurisyNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: PneumothoraxNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: ThoracentesisNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Pleural Diseases. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Pleural Disorders, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.